I know some of you don't follow the main site closely, but there has been a LOT of new content (mostly location lists) added in recent months. You might want to check out the blog for updates. You can also follow me on Twitter, where I post site updated and live tweet my travels and interesting stores I run across.

I will try to be better about posting updates to the board as well. I'm going to add links to some of the new location lists in the appropriate forums today.

A question (and I suppose this is as good a place as any to ask it)...

When you parse directories for your chain grocery location tables, how do you decide which locations to include and which to omit? City directories often list chaff like one-off grocers and convenience stores alongside the chain grocers, and it would add time and reduce the signal-to-noise ratio to include them all. But if you omit *everything* that looks unfamiliar, you risk letting small or long-defunct chains and building re-uses slip through your fingers. Is there a secret to finding the right balance?

Speaking from the frustrations of my own research experiences...

"The pale pastels which have been featured in most food stores during the past 20 years are no longer in tune with the mood of the 1970s."
Andrew Turnbull

Actually, I'm actively working on a "methodology" post to be added soon, but...

I generally define "chain" based on the existence two or more locations in most cities, depending on size of the city (three in bigger cities). Since I'm looking at multiple years, I can and do backtrack to get earlier locations if I see something that grows over time. Sometimes I check out buildings on Google Maps to see what evidence I can get from that when something seems iffy.

In most larger cities, especially prior to 1950 or so, there tend to be either big chains with many locations or small ones with two or three, and very little in between. In the later years, I'm more aware of names to look for even if there may only be one branch in a given city.

There would be no real way to include every store, because the "one-off" to "chain" ratio in a big city might be something like 500:1 or more, particularly in the early years. It would take me months to do a single city. It's usually pretty easy to pick out what is--or will become--a chain, though I'm sure I miss one here and there.